I do recognize that most people LOVE the stuff however and when I bring anything chocolate to work or to friends it’s devoured quickly. As I was reading this month’s Cook’s Illustrated, I saw a recipe for the perfect chocolate brownies and thought they’d make a perfect addition to Valentine’s goodie bags I was putting together.

Characteristics we’re looking for in this brownie are: smooth chocolate texture, chewy center and glossy crisp top. I think we got there with gems.

I loaded these bags with brownies, marshmallows and candies and cupid made special deliveries. I’m not going to post the recipe for the brownies, I think Cook’s Illustrated has a strong copyright on their articles. I only subscribe to one magazine and this one is it.

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All too often in my life, my dad was walked up to me, grabbed my skinny, lanky arm and said some form of: You couldn’t to a pull up if your life depended on it or You couldn’t do a pull up if a million dollars was on the line.  I’m a little to proud to say he’s right, but I will reluctantly admit that the odds are 90/10 in his favor.

So, when I updated my Facebook profile the other week with the comment, I broke my thumb playing football, my closest friends immediately commented back: You. Football? or You were playing a sport that required coordination…and a ball?

I know but I really did.

And this little fracture has made cooking quite the adventure. I’ve been very creative about using tools to prop, balance and handle bowls and utensils.  In retrospect, I could have made something different than sticky gooey marshmallow popsicle.

But I couldn’t help it.

Thomas Keller’s Marshmallow Recipe

Supplies

* large mixing bowl

* 9×13 baking tray

* Hand blender

* Pizza cutter or knife

* Cooking spray

* Candy thermometer (optional, but can be handy)

Ingredients

* 3 pouches of gelatin

* 1/2 cup (120 mL) water

* 2 cups (400 g) sugar

* 2/3 cup (160 mL) corn syrup

* 1/4 cup (60 mL) water

* 1/4 tsp. (1.5 g) salt

* 1 Tbs. (15 mL) vanilla extract (don't forget this! Otherwise, your marshmallows will literally taste like blood from the gelatin)

* Starch or powdered sugar to coat the marshmallows (it's your choice what you use. Powdered sugar = sweeter marshmallows, starch = less sweet)

Directions

1. soak gelatin in a large mixing bowl for 10 min in 1/2 cup water and let it bloom

2. very lightly grease up the 9×13 pan. I like rubbing cooking spray onto it. Then I sprinkle starch or powdered sugar on it.

3. bring water, sugar and corn syrup to a boil for 1 min or let it get to 250 degrees

4. (this is where it gets tricky and a little dangerous. Molten sugar = third degree burn central, so be careful!) Put your hand blender on the lowest setting and slowly pour the sugar mixture into the bloomed up gelatin. As the mixture turns more white and opaque, you can speed up the blender.

5. Pour in vanilla and blend for about 10 minutes or until the mixture gets the consistency of Fluff.

6. Pour into pan and let it cool. Some people like letting it sit out overnight. I tend to just let it cool for an hour or two before cutting.

7. Cover the top of the marshmallow with powdered sugar or starch, then invert pan onto a clean surface.

8. Cut into squares with pizza cutter.

9. Coat marshmallows with powdered sugar or starch.

via Thomas Keller’s Marshmallow Recipe: Review of Marshmallows at Lunch.com.

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Here’s my mom, me and my sister over Christmas in Austin. No there’s nothing on your screen, we decided to have a bit of fun and wear bendis we got at Tesoro’s (just my favorite store ever). This is Liz’s freshman year and if it’s possible to ride your little sister’s coat tails, I’m doing it.

I have an additional cupcake confession other than I don’t like frosting. It’s that more that cupcakes I love, LOVE these sugar cookies we call tea cakes. What I mean is if I had to choose my most favorite thing in the world or these cookies, I’d take the cookies any day.

Back to Lizzy’s coat tails. I’ve noticed since she started college that I’m receiving more care packages from Mom. Case in point, a lovely package that included a whole container of red heart Valentine tea cakes. I had four immediately. I’ve had at least three additional and ….

Wait, yes, I stopped in the middle of this post to go get one more.

Tea Cakes

Preheat oven to 350.

1 c butter

2 c sugar

3 eggs

2 big T buttermilk

1 t vanilla

5 c flour

for icing:

powder sugar

milk

vanilla

butter

Mix all ingredients, chill, roll out and bake. My advice is to toll them to about 1/4″ thick. Don’t over cook.

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Who dat think they goin to beat dem Saints?

Typically I watch enough football to weather pop football quizzes from my Dad. I love a good sports story and when they do those behind the scenes rags to riches over coming diversity stories, I well up with the best of them. But lets be serious, I bake cupcakes and knit and that doesn’t really fit into the football culture.

But on Super Bowl Sunday, I’ll watch the game and do all the fanfare and treat it just like Forth of July or Thanksgiving.

Suppose it’s obvious who I’ll be cheering on for this year’s game.

Don’t worry Cowboys. Next year for sure!

King Cake is a lemon, nutmeg flavored yeast bread cake typically filled with cream cheese. For these cupcakes, I took the lemon, nutmeg and cream cheese and incorporated them into a traditional white cake.

King Cake Cupcakes

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1 t nutmeg

3 large egg whites

3/4 cup milk at room temperature

1 stick butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 t lemon juice

Cream cheese cut into 1/2″ squares

Preheat oven to 350. Place paper liners in all wells of one 12 cup tin.

Whisk flour baking powder, nutmeg and salt together in a small bowl to aerate and combine, set aside.

Whisk egg whites and milk together in a small bowl to combine, set aside.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium high speed, beat butter until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar gradually, beating until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl once or twice. Beat in lemon. Add the flour mixture in 4 additions, alternately with the egg white-milk mixture. Begin and end with the flour mixture, and beat briefly until smooth on low medium speed after each addition.

Divide batter evenly among cupcake wells. Insert cream cheese square into center. Bake for 20 minutes, or until edges turn golden brown.

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I’m pretty sure that when people look at me they don’t think, “she looks like an athlete.” That’s why I’m confused when I get asked to play things like flag football, laser tag and softball. All with the guise that “we’re just going to have some fun.”

Right.

So, when I walk up to the flag football field and there’s some dude running drills on the field by himself, I’m sure that guy is there to have some fun.

For this invitation, I decided that when I walked up, I was going to make sure that there was no surprise with my athletic ability. No pretense that maybe I could coordinate my arms and legs to do something in sequence. I brought cupcakes to a flag football game.

These are straight out of the Martha Stewart Cupcake book. The method for making these guys is easy, I deviated a bit from her method, my changes are written below.

Snowman Cupcake How-To
This snowman wears a fine winter hat: a chocolate-covered mint beret. His plump figure is two marshmallows — cut a slice off the top one and squish to make it smaller. Dabs of icing hold parts together. His eyes are made from dipping a toothpick in black food coloring, and his nose is cut from a gummy fish.

Martha Stewart’s One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 18 to 24

* 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

* 1 1/2 cups sugar

* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

* 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

* 3/4 teaspoon salt

* 2 large eggs

* 3/4 cup warm water

* 3/4 cup buttermilk

* 3 tablespoons safflower oil

* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners; set aside. Sift together cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.

2. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each 2/3 full. Bake until tops spring back when touched, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely.

Helpful Hint

Cupcakes will keep, covered, for up to three days.

via One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes and more delicious recipes, smart cooking tips, and video demonstrations on marthastewart.com.

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I was not an early adopter to Facebook. I’ve had my account almost two years and at first I had a small group of contacts and now my contact list has really grown. I’ve got the usual FB suspects including high school friends, college contacts, adult hood friends and family.

I love having my family on FB because it gives me a chance to see what’s happening in their everyday lives. I mean how often to you call your aunts and uncles? I think that our FB relationship allows me to know more about them and gives them a chance to learn more about me.

The other day my Uncle Pat updated his status with:

mmmmmmmm. Coffee with a packet of Swiss Miss milk chocolate in it. Gooooood! BTW HOOK”EM HORNS!

That sounded really good to me. Recipe: So this morning I made a big cup of coffee, stirred in a packet of Swiss Miss and added a drop of peppermint extract. Yum. Its a great compliment to our chilly morning in Phoenix.

On another note, I’m torn on if there is still time to put up Christmas lights outside.

I had my tree up two weeks before Thanksgiving, but somehow the outside lights didn’t quite make it.

But you know, I’m comfortable with keeping it simple.

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I’m also not a fan of sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds. My intention with pumpkin seed brittle was to use all of the pumpkin I had roasted to make pumpkin butter.

I relied on my official taste testers (my co-workers) and I received nice reviews. In my opinion its not as good as the prepackaged pumpkin brittle you can buy at Williams Sonoma.

Ingredients:

* 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

* 3/8 teaspoon baking soda

* 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

* 1 1/2 cups sugar

* 1/4 cup light corn syrup

* 1/4 cup water

* 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the pan

* 1 3/4 cups shelled, raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas), toasted*

Directions:

Invert a baking sheet and lightly grease the bottom (now the top), or place a silicone mat or piece of parchment paper on a clean work surface.

In a small bowl, combine the salt, baking soda and cumin.

In a large heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup and water, stirring until smooth. Add the butter and place over medium heat. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring constantly. The mixture will become white and frothy, then turn to a medium caramel-brown color. Remove from the heat and immediately whisk in the salt mixture. (Be careful; the sugar mixture will foam up, almost doubling in volume.) Quickly add the toasted pumpkin seeds and stir until they are coated with the caramel. If the mixture hardens too much to stir or spread, set it back over the heat for a minute or so to melt. Pour the mixture onto the center of the prepared sheet and, using a clean (preferably silicone) rolling pin, roll out to a thickness of 1/4 inch. The caramel might stick to the rolling pin at first, but as the mixture cools, it will stop sticking; keep rolling. Cool completely. Break into bite-size pieces.

The brittle will keep at room temperature for about 2 weeks in an airtight container. It can be frozen, well wrapped, for up to 6 months.

NOTE: To toast shelled pumpkin seeds:

Toss them with 1 tablespoon of canola oil and spread in a single layer on a lined baking sheet. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 6 to 8 minutes; allow to cool completely.

via Pumpkin Seed Brittle Recipe Details | Recipe database | washingtonpost.com.

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When it hits 90 degrees in Phoenix, AZ you start to see sweaters and boots come out of the closet. Some of it can be attributed to the fact that Phoenicians have thinner blood. And some of it can be attributed to after Labor day habits where some of feel obligated to put away the linen and pearls and break out the plaid and tweed.

And even with our still hot days, we still can’t resist pumpkin. I admit was at Dunkin Donuts on the first day this season they had pumpkin donuts.

My coffee has been getting the pumpkin treatment lately too. I first started out by making a whole pumpkin latte by scratch using this recipe and method I read about in craft magazine:

Pumpkin Spice Latte
makes 1-2 servings

Ingredients:
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons canned pumpkin OR 1 teaspoon of Torani Pumpkin Spice Syrup (your choice)
2 tablespoons sugar or sugar substitute – you can halve this amount
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1-2 shots espresso (about 1/4 cup of espresso or 1/2 cup of strong brewed coffee if you don’t have an espresso machine.)

Directions:
In a saucepan combine milk, pumpkin and sugar and cook on medium heat, stirring, until steaming. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and spice, transfer to a blender and process for 15 seconds until foamy. If you don’t have a blender, don’t worry about it – just whisk the mixture really well with a wire whisk.

Pour into a large mug or two mugs. Add the espresso on top.

Optional: Top with whipped cream and sprinkle pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, or cinnamon on top.

It by far was the tastiest version, but I have opted for more simple weekday pumpkin lattes by using either the pumpkin latte syrup from Williams Sonoma or most recently the Pumpkin Spice creamer from Coffee Mate.

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Don’t let these polished looks fool you people! We busted our booties in the kitchen all day cranking out some serious cake. And if you wanted a product endorsement, we had the the Kitchen Aid turned on for at least three hours mixing cake, whipping cream and making frosting.

And the praises were totally worth it! Up first Martha Stewart’s Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Meringue Buttercream.

To add a second product endorsement, Martha’s new cupcake book is totally worth it. I have an extensive collection of cupcake cookbooks. Some are cute, some are are easy and some have good pictures.  This book combines great photography, great recipes and a nice reference section for techniques and decorating ideas. This my fifth cupcake from the book and I will say that 4 out of 5 made more than the recipe indicated (but who cares if you end up with extra cupcakes).

Here’s the frosting recipe:

Strawberry Meringue Buttercream
Makes about 5 cups

4 large egg whites, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, cut into small pieces
1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, pureed

Place whites and sugar in a heatproof mixer bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture registers 160 degrees on a candy thermometer.

Remove from heat, and attach bowl to a mixer. Whisk on medium speed for 5 minutes. Increase speed to medium-high, and whisk until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 6 minutes. Reduce speed to medium, and add butter, 1 piece at a time, whisking well after each addition.

Switch to a paddle attachment. With mixer on low, add strawberry puree, and beat until smooth, 3 to 5 minutes. Use immediately, or cover, and refrigerate for up to 3 days. (Bring to room temperature, and beat on low speed until smooth before using.)

Martha Stewart Cupcake Challenge: 2/175

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My intention when I booked marked it was to make it as instructed. But, I had a moment where I thought I could, gasp, deviate from the rules and make something inspired by Cathy’s design, but not exactly. I had this beautiful inviatation to Annie and Eric’s wedding and I thought it would make a perfect construction material.

I don’t know that I need to write out all the instructions here, because if you follow the instructions from Cathy, it’s pretty easy to adapt it. What I didn’t do was mod podge the paper, I instead sprayed it with stuff that made it shiney and I didn’t need to paint the paper since what I had was so pretty.

I then grabbed every other invitation I had and made it into a broach also. I also think this method of making paper flowers would make georgeous package toppers as well. I’m thinking about fastening them to the front of chinese take out gift boxes or plain brown paper gift bags.

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